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ChapterI
TheMethodologicalBackground
1.Introduction
Thepresentworkisconcernedwiththewayinwhichthepoeticsof
theMiddleEnglishromancereflectitsultimatelyoraloriginandmodeof
delivery.Thismeansanalysingaspectsofthegenre’spoeticstylesuchas
versification,metreandstanzaconstructioninthecontextoftheconven-
tionalcharacterofthelanguagespecifictothemedievalverseromance.
Theaimoftheargumentistoprovideadetailedanalysisofsomechosen
specimensoftheMiddleEnglishromanceinordertodefinethedifferent
modelsofdistributionoftheformulaicmaterialwhichstandbehindthe
actualcompositionoftherespectivepoemsandsubsequentlytoobserve
howthecharacterofthosemodelsreflectsonotheraspectsofthetexts’
poeticstyle.
Thepresentchapterhasasitsaimtoembarkonanintroductorydiscus-
sionofthemethodologyfromwhichtheargumentadoptedforthewhole
studystems.Thereforethechapterhastwooverridingobjectives.Thefirst
oftheseistoprovideanexhaustiveoverviewofthewidestpossiblecontext
ofscholarlyandcriticalworkwhichhasbeenconductedonthetopicand
topositionthepresentstudyinthisverycontext.Thesecondobjectiveis
todefinethesetofunderlyingtheoreticalassumptionswithwhich,inthe
followingchapters,thesubsequentanalyticalworkwillbeconducted.
Thesetwoaimsare,ofcourse,inherentlyrelatedandinfactmost
complimentary,sinceanyworkwhichaspirestocontributetoafieldof
researchwhichhasbeengracedwiththeachievementofmanypowerful
mindsmustcarefullypositionitselfvisàvisthestateoftheartresearch.
Thusitisespeciallyimportantintheareaoforal-formulaicstudies,which
haveoverthecourseoftimebranchedoutintomanydiffering,andeven-
tuallymutuallyirreconcilable,schoolsandapproaches,which,whilethey
